Then we will discuss racial issues and feminine sexuality, which are also relevant themes in the novel. We will explain the reappearance of the monstrous and answer the question when and how the monstrous escapes to appear again.
The book´s central focus is the phenomenon of the monstrous. He haunts the vampires and kills them, when ultimately he is captured by a pair of infected survivors. Neville, trying to understand the germ which created the disease and to which he himself is immune, does scientific researches. In Matheson´s fictional work the protagonist Robert Neville, as the only human being, lives in a world of bloodthirsty vampires. Afterwards we will apply Cohen´s thesis to Richard Matheson´s “I Am Legend”, a Science Fiction and horror novel, which deals with monsters in form of vampires. Also referring to Cohen´s first thesis “The Monster´s Body Is A Cultural Body” we will examine how monsters are born into society and how they keep on living within the frames of cultural, political and social relations. Cohen´s second thesis “The Monster Always Escapes” will be of special interest to us.
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome: Monster Culture (Seven Theses). In his work called “Monster Theory” he proposes a method of understanding cultures through the monsters they invent by giving seven theses explaining the monster´s characterizations (cf. The anthropologist Jeffrey Jerome Cohen deals with monsters and their role in society. Monsters have always played an important role in culture.īut what are monsters? How do they find their way into our society and where do they come from? Not only are they defined by their deterrent appearance but also by qualities ascribed by the culture they appear in (cf. We read about them in fictional literature and see them in classic movies as well as new publications. Children at an early age fear monsters under their beds and adolescents fight against monsters in computer games. Their hideous appearance and scary behavior became integrated in our lives and culture. It is difficult to imagine our world without monsters. Conclusion: cultural, social and political contextĥ.3 Comparison between book and film adaptation “ The monster always escapes” – The return of the undeadĥ.
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